POLITICAL group leaders at Cheshire West and Chester Council will write to Amber Rudd calling on her Government department to change Universal Credit.

At this month's full council meeting members voted for Cllr Samantha Dixon, the council’s Labour leader, and Cllr Lynn Riley, leader of the Conservative opposition group, to write a joint letter to the new secretary of state for work and pensions on the matter.

Cllr Carol Gahan, Labour, put forward the motion to council – raising concerns about a range of issues which have plagued the new benefit since its launched, including the five-week wait for claimants to receive their payment.

Members on both sides of the chamber supported the plan – but Cllr Riley suggested that Ms Rudd already understands the problems she needs to tackle without CWAC’s letter.

She said: “The implementation of Universal Credit leaves much to be desired, and we can all agree in this chamber that it can and must be better.

 

“But we know here in this chamber that change is hard and can be difficult. We’re struggling here against our savings target, and in spite of lofty promises on IT in 2016, our roll-out is facing costly overruns and time delays.

“And we are a council of £278 million of turnover – the Department for Work and Pensions is a £180 billion operation.

“But that is no excuse, it must do better. It is unacceptable that one in six people aren’t getting their money in time – but it does mean that five out of six are.”

The member for Frodsham added that CWAC should build on the success of its Work Zones and do more to upskill residents to help them find work.

She also praised online Universal Credit applications – stating that residents in her ward would otherwise be sent to Halton to make their applications.

But Cllr Nicole Meardon, Labour, insisted that vulnerable residents can struggle accessing online support – and she pointed out that this is just one of a raft of issues that claimants have experienced.

She said: “In principal the idea of getting one benefit instead of six, one that incentivises work rather than staying on benefits, seems like a good idea – one that should simplify the benefit system and make it more efficient to administer and navigate.

 

“But the reality has been the complete opposite – leaving claimants worse off, forced to rely on food banks and charities, with a spike of evictions, homelessness, people forced into debt, rent arrears, leaving people claiming this benefit in despair and desperation.

“The benefits are there to support people. Many claimants have paid into the system their whole lives, and are being thoroughly let down by this cruel system.”

Labour Cllr Carol Gahan, who put forward the motion, also hit out at Cllr Riley’s comments comparing Universal Credit to CWAC’s IT system.

She said: “If our IT doesn’t work, we don’t end up going to the food bank. We don’t end up having to go and get a loan from a payday lender because we can’t pay our rent.

 

“This system is fundamentally flawed. The Trussell Trust have recorded an increase of use in food banks wherever this has been rolled out.”